The Paper Life They Lead : Stories

A Pontiac Sunfire experiences Springsteen-esque glory days; women captivate with unusual beauty; a murderous sloth threatens a child. With plots that dive immediately into the absurd, Crerand captures the angst of existential crises, the search for meaning, and moments of depth and beauty through humor and attention to detail. This seven-story collection is funny, serious, and bizarre. "Crerand is some rare kind of genius, offering unexpected shots of delight in stories that are miles high in imagination and distinctly and wonderfully weird. A Pontiac car goes to school and beyond, an airplane flight zooms into outer space, and in one especially daring, loopy story, a giant 7-toed sloth inhabits an abandoned zoo. I've never read anything quite like this collection--wild, wooly, and absolutely dazzling." Caroline Leavitt, author of Cruel Beautiful World and New York Times Best Sellers Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow" The Paper Life They Lead is the rare book that is as hilarious as it is terrifying, as heartfelt as it is intellectual, as realistic as it is experimental. Patrick Crerand is a writer of enormous talent and depth of heart. I love these stories; everyone who reads them will too." Wiley Cash, author of The Last Ballad "These are some truly fine stories. What I love about Patrick Crerand is what I love about George Saunders: the persuasive absurdity, the human language (there is not a single imperfect word here) and the serious, serious laughter. I haven't had so much fun reading a book, and so much glorious heartbreak, in years." Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish and Extraordinary Adventures "The Paper Life They Lead is some kind of wild mixture of Etgar Keret and Ray Bradbury. You're never totally sure what to believe, but you always know you're in good hands. Patrick Crerand renders strange people in a world that is recognizable but not quite, and he does so with humor, intelligence, and a little bit of an edge. These stories are daring and jump off the page." Tom McAllister, author of How to Be Safe "Crerand's choices become the real art here, his ability to make them work so convincingly. A story with a premise like [life on a Pepperidge Farm box] could be merely a joke in the wrong hands, but Crerand's commitment steers him clear of all of that, into much better territory, much more effective fiction." Michael Czyzniejewski, Story 366 "In The Paper Life They Lead, Patrick Crerand takes risks in his storytelling, and the result is an inventive collection. In this slim book of just over 50 pages, Crerand's mixture of flash fiction and slightly longer stories drops the reader into bizarre and unexpected places. Fantastical events occur even when the world looks much like the one we live in. The interesting and weird premises are stated upfront allowing the reader to focus on the characters-their relationships and how they react to the situations they are in." Emily Webber, SmokeLong Quarterly

• | Author: Patrick Crerand
• | Publisher: Arc Pair Press
• | Publication Date: Jul 26, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 70 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1733971920
• | ISBN-13: 9781733971928